MTN and IHS sign tower agreement in Nigeria

Details: James Barton; Category: Wireless Networks; 05 September 2014; 10893 views

MTN is transferring control of over 9,000 of its towers in Nigeria to IHS Holding as part of a new agreement.

The deal involves the formation of a new joint venture between MTN and IHS, over which the latter will have complete operational control. This new firm will assume control over 9,151 of MTN’s Nigerian towers, and will invest $500 million into maintaining and upgrading them over the next 4 years.

MTN is looking to boost service levels and network efficiency in Nigeria while cutting operating costs and expanding capacity for voice and data. IHS is aiming to invest in its Nigerian network operations centre to increase network availability to over 99%.

“The separation of MTN Nigeria’s mobile network towers and operation of the underlying towers business by IHS reflects a major part of our strategy to optimise network quality and technological assets towards creating value and driving innovation to meet our customers’ needs now and in the long term,” said Michael Ikpoki, MTN Nigeria CEO.

IHS and MTN have struck a number of similar deals in the past few years, covering Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Rwanda and Zambia. Once this deal closes – expected to be Q4 2014 – IHS will control over 20,000 towers in Africa.

The joint venture will also provide infrastructure sharing services to mobile and internet operators in Nigeria.